Media and Politics in the Age of Trump

James Lawrence Fly in 1953 after he left the FCC to become head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the same year he debated the use of wiretaps with House Majoirty Leader Charles A. Halleck on Edward R. Murrow's program "See It Now."

The cover from Puck, a popular humor and satire magazine, depicts President William McKinley at his desk examining his war policy while a newspaper reporter, probably Joseph Pulitzer, carrying “Yellow Journal War Plans” pokes his nose into McKinley’s plans. 

Protesters outside of a Chicago Trump campaign event in March 2016. One protester’s sign reads: “Bump the Chump. Down with Drumpf.” Drumpf is a reference to a popular clip from John Oliver’s HBO show “This Week Tonight” in which Oliver asked viewers to begin using Trump’s ancestral name, Drumpf, instead of Trump.

An 1898 editorial cartoon depicting the competition between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst for newspaper circulation as they fueled U.S. public opinion towards going to war with Spain.

The 2016 Republican Presidential Primary Delegate Vote. 

The 2016 Republican Presidential Primary Popular Vote.

A protest in San Diego in May 2016. Protesters hold effigies of Trump wearing a sombrero and holding a Mexican flag.

The 2016 Republican Presidential Primary results by county.

Donald Trump during an interview at Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona in December 2015 (Photo by Gage Skidmore). 

The stage before the 10^th Republican Presidential Debate in February 2016. The debate was the only one sponsored by a Spanish language outlet, Telemundo, and CNN’s 3^rd debate. The Republican Presidential Debates brought in record audiences. 

Two of the most infamous examples of “yellow journalism,” Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World (left) and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal (right) competed for sales by sensationalizing conditions in Cuba in the lead up to the Spanish-American War in 1898.

“The Yellow Press” by L.M. Glackens (1910). The illustration depicts William Randolph Hearst as a jester tossing newspapers to the eager masses with headlines such as “Venom, Sensationalism, Attacks on Honest Officials, Distorted News, and Appeals to Passion.” 

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) seal.

The National Broadcasting Corporation’s first logo in 1943 (top left). The Columbia Broadcasting Corporation logo from 1927 to 1931 (top right). Mutual Broadcasting System’s 1934 logo (bottom left). American Broadcasting Corporation logo from 1964 (bottom right).

A child listens to the radio during its heyday before television. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the taping of one of his “fireside chats” from 1933 to 1944 in which he addressed the nation in a casual manner through radio. 

James Lawrence Fly (back left) and FCC commissioners inspect the first lightweight television in 1939.

Even as early as 1928, television’s capability to sell goods was anticipated in this depiction of the ideal television of the future. 

Senator Joseph McCarthy questioning attorney Joseph Welch during Congress’s Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.

Television rapidly became a dominant form of media in the 1950s and 1960s.

CBS anchor Edward R. Murrow at work in his office in 1957. 

National Public Radio logo from its founding in 1970 (left) and its current logo (right).

WLBT-Jackson, Mississippi (c. 1955). Owned and operated by members of the White Citizens Council (a white supremacist organization), WLBT featured programs dedicated to maintaining segregation. In 1955, Medgar Evers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a complaint over the racial bias in WLBT’s local news coverage. After years of litigation, the FCC revoked WLBT’s license in 1969.

Deregulation of media companies in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in far fewer corporations with control over a majority of the U.S. media. 

News coverage of U.S. elections focuses more on the horserace aspects, such as who is currently leading in the polls, than on substantive analysis of the candidates or their stances. 

Former Republican Vice-Presidential nominee and former Fox News political commentator Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump in January 2016. 

The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton set a new record for debate viewership. The second debate (above) had fewer viewers but high ratings nevertheless. 

Graffiti on Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star in April 2016. His star has been vandalized numerous times since he started his presidential campaign. 

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a quasi-autonomous corporation partially funded by the British government. It is the world’s largest broadcast news organization.

Known as the “Big Six,” these media conglomerates control 90% of the news media in the United States. On the left from top to bottom, the Comcast Corporation logo, the Walt Disney Company logo, and Time Warner Incorporated logo. On the right from top to bottom, the 21^st Century Fox logo, the CBS Corporation logo, and the Viacom logo. 

The FCC's 1946's "Blue Book," officially titled the "Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees." 

Protesters outside the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. in July 2015.

Anti-Trump protest in August 2016 outside a Wilmington, North Carolina campaign event.